If an educator ever tells you that they are not nervous the night before the first day of school, please know that they are lying. I enter my 28th year in education and I still have a restless night before the first day. Part of that is excitement for the new year and part of that is worry that things will go well and that I will set the right tone for the kids on the first day. I know that hooking the kids early and demonstrating to them that this year will be different from what they've had in the past are the two most important things I can do on the first day of school.
On the first day, I only want to learn the kids' names. I don't care about the rules, expectations, curriculum, school events or any other agenda items. We'll get to those. All I care about is learning, as quickly as possible, who they are and what they're about. I want the kids to know that I am buying into them and I want them to be open to buying into the class. Building relationships with our students is the single most important thing that we do. All else hinges on those relationships.
We are now two weeks in to the new school year. The last ten school days have been a blur, a good blur. The kids are relaxed, happy and learning. They are learning that our expectations on team are to treat everyone with respect and compassion, do the best they can and be open to both success and failure. As we live those expectations this year, kids will make leaps and bounds toward becoming lifelong learners, our ultimate goal for them.
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